Interesting list! I’m sorry to say the only one of those I’ve read is Jane Eyre. I suppose Virgil (and not Homer) is there because of the recent publicity around Robert Fagles’ new translation. And where is Shakespeare? It can’t be any harder to read than Joyce, can it?

Is anyone up for a meme? What are your top five wanna-reads? Here are mine:

The Bible

The Odyssey

The Divine Comedy

Paradise Lost

Shakespeare (all of it)

Very predictable, I suppose, but it’s hard to go wrong with books that have been revered for centuries.

23 comments on “Everyone’s To-Read List”

Actually I'd like to read it (it's quite short) but my library doesn't have it and I don't want to buy it just to read once. It would just be nice to read what some sane American officials (apparently there are some) have to say about the war.

I *was* wondering how on earth Virgil got picked over Homer. I've read Jane Eyre, Pilgrim's Progress and two from the Proust volumes.The only book from that list that I “really” want to read is Paradise Lost. There are so many books I desire for different reasons that I don't know if I can winnow it to a top five. It's almost like asking for my favourites.

I'm with Imani here — this list would be hard for me to make because there's so much I want to read, and I want to read it for different reasons, so I'm really not sure what the top 5 would be. Right now Don Quixote is on there, definitely. After that??

The Newsweek list strikes me as a “books I've thought about from time to time, maybe even picked up, but probably won't actually read unless I'm stranded on a desert island with them, because I'm too busy in general and more specifically, too busy reading other books I'm actually interested in enough to read” list. “Five books I most want to read” seems like a different list entirely. I'll have to think about that one…

First, in my opinion, the Aeneid is every bit as good as the Iliad, and better than the Odyssey, so there, you Virgil detractors!Second, I've read eight of the books on that list in their entirety, including the the first five. I made it all the way through Moby Dick, but have never been able to make it through War and Peace or Ulysses. I won't go into how much and why I just really can't stand James Joyce. (Now feel free to castigate me any Joyce lovers out there; I can take it.)Third, Shakespeare is easier to read than Joyce by a long stretch, again, in my opinion.Fourth, I want to read everything. I just can't narrow it down to a top five.

I prefer Love in the Time of Cholera over 100 Years of Solitude–owing to more of a plot and flow of emotions. My wanna-reads….The Human Bondage – Sommerset MaughmDivine Comedy – DanteSomething by Thoreau

These are the ones that I've grown tired of putting off and hope to get through in 2007:1. The Odyssey2. MiddlemarchThe following are titles that sit on the shelf and I'm wondering how much -oomph- would be required for me to actually get through them.3. Heart of Darkness4. Don Quixote5. Mrs. Dalloway

I couldn't list only five either. How do you narrow it down when there are so many wonderful books. Don Quixote is one and The Iliad and Odyssey–all three I hope to read this year. I want to read Proust, and I am actually working on War and Peace. I read parts of Paradise Lost and the Inferno in high school, but I'm afraid the contents of those have been long forgotten. More to add to the list…It's a never ending project (though one I don't mind a bit!).

My own list of course will change depending when you ask me, but right now, if I have to narrow it down to 5:1. The Idiot by Dostoevsky2. War and Peace by Tolstoy3. Anna Karenina by Tolstoy4. In Search of Lost Time by Proust (halfway through)5. The MahabharataI read “Vineland” and never understood the appeal of Thomas Pynchon. Sorry if there are fans out there.I absolutely refuse to believe people really want to read “The Iraq Study Group Report: The Way Forward, A New Approach” – they are just saying that to look trendy and interested in Current Affairs, right?